Belgium: 'The Triumph of Death'. Oil on panel painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1526-1569), c. 1562. The painting is a panoramic landscape: the sky in the distance is blackened by smoke from burning cities and the sea is littered with shipwrecks. Armies of skeletons advance on the living, who either flee in terror or try vainly to fight back. In the foreground, skeletons haul a wagon full of skulls, and ring the bell that signifies the death knell of the world. A fool plays the lute while a skeleton behind him plays along; a starving dog nibbles at the face of a child.

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Size: 4960px × 3539px
Photo credit: © Pictures From History / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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